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Action Bias

Tendency of individuals to feel compelled to take action, even when it might be more rational to refrain from doing so.

Action Bias

Molly had always been a decisive person. When she was in charge of a digital product at work, she made quick decisions and moved forward. But on one particularly busy day, she found herself stuck in a dilemma.

Her team was gearing up for a big product launch, and they had run into an unexpected issue: a bug in the system that would delay the rollout. Molly sat at her desk, staring at the code and weighing her options. The bug wasn’t critical, but it had the potential to cause small disruptions down the line. Molly knew they could either address the issue immediately or let it slide and focus on other parts of the launch.

But as the minutes ticked by, she grew restless. She hated the idea of doing nothing. Surely taking action, even if it wasn’t the most effective, would make her feel better. So, she instructed her team to begin working on a fix right away.

As her development team dove into solving the bug, Molly felt a temporary sense of accomplishment. However, hours later, they discovered that the fix they had implemented wasn’t necessary at all. In fact, the bug had resolved itself on its own as the system adjusted to new updates. Their efforts had been wasted, and the team now had less time to focus on more important tasks.

This tendency to act simply because we feel that doing something is better than doing nothing, even when inaction would have been more rational is called Action bias. In Molly’s case, her desire to be busy and productive led her to waste resources on an issue that didn’t require immediate attention, demonstrating how the bias can cloud decision-making.

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Scarcity Bias

Tendency to value limited or scarce resources more highly than those that are abundantly available.

Small Win Bias – Gratification Bias

Tendency to prioritizes or value short-term rewards over long-term benefits.

The Cheating Bias

Dishonest behavior by getting influenced to do so when observing others, leading to unethical practices.

Sisyphus Effect

Tendency to give up when there is no gratification or visible meaning / output to efforts.

The IKEA Effect

People tend to value an object more if they contribute to its creation.

Dunning Kruger Effect

Overestimating one’s knowledge due to a lack of understanding about the complexity of a subject.

Decoy Option Effect

Influences preferences by introducing a less attractive intermediate option, subtly steering choices towards more profitable alternatives.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values.

Spotlight Effect

The tendency to believe that we are being noticed more than we really are.

Anchoring Bias

People rely heavily on the first piece of information (the “anchor”), even if it’s irrelevant.

Current Mood Bias

It is a distortion in cognition and decision making due to the present emotional state.

Prestige Bias

The tendency to favor the opinions of individuals or groups with higher social status or authority even when not in the same field.

Social Desirability Bias

Tendency to respond to or behave in a way that is socially acceptable or desirable, rather than expressing their true opinions or behaviors.

Recency Bias

The tendency to better recall recent information and events while ignoring older information.

Restraint Bias

The tendency to overestimate the level of control we have over our impulsive behaviors.

Survivorship Bias

The tendency to focus on the individuals or things that have “survived” or succeeded, while overlooking data from those that have not.

Response Bias

Tendency to provide inaccurate or false answers during surveys or interviews.

First impression Bias

The tendency to form lasting opinions based on initial experiences.

Omission Bias

Tendency to avoid taking action due to fear or uncertainty, even when not taking action could be more harmful.

Bundling Bias

The tendency of buying things that are sold together, even if we don’t need everything in the bundle. Think of this as the “package deal effect.”

Distinction Bias

In decision making, we tend to overvalue the minor differences between two almost similar options when we examine them together.

Projection Bias

Individuals overestimate the prevalence of their own thoughts, beliefs, preferences, and knowledge in others.

Salience Bias

Our tendency to focus on items or information that are more noteworthy while ignoring those that do not grab our attention.

Diversification Bias

Spreading our resources thinly across numerous options instead of concentrating on a few.

Pessimism Bias

A tendency to believe things will go wrong even when there is no evidence to support it.

Optimism Bias

Tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive outcomes and underestimate the negative ones.

Bandwagon Effect

It refers to our habit of adopting certain behaviors or beliefs because many other people do the same.

Framing Bias

Equivalent information can be more or less attractive depending on how it is presented, influencing our decisions.

Recall Bias

Individuals do not accurately remember past events or experiences or leave out details while reporting about them.

Group Think Bias

A group of individuals reaches a consensus without critical reasoning or evaluation of the consequences or alternatives, simply doing or agreeing because everyone else is.